From the newsobserver we get the story of Marxavi Angel Martinez, a North Carolinian woman who is now facing imprisonment and deportation because of her legal status. Martinez was born in Mexico, but brought to the U.S. at the age of three and has lived here ever since.

Unfortunately, Martinez has been using the social security number of a deceased person since she’s lived in the U.S. It’s her use of the social security number that has got her in all sorts of trouble now, even though she may not have even known that her number was not hers:

Martinez, who was arrested in the library, is charged with four federal felonies, all related to what authorities say was her use of a dead person’s Social Security number. If found guilty, she would face several years in prison before being deported.

What’s even more troubling about Martinez’s story is exactly how she was ‘found out.’ Rumor has it that the Sheriff Terry Johnson(who apparently is North Carolina’s version of Sheriff Joe) may have been sniffing through personal health records:

But Martinez’s arrest in mid-July raised concerns that the county may be examining confidential medical information. Johnson told reporters that Martinez got prenatal care at the department. He also said the tip about her immigration status came from a county employee and was related to the health department investigation.

Why are police officials anywhere near private health records?

And how many more rights to privacyare citizens going to have to give up before we can agree that a person paying into a dead person’s social security is not really the problem here?